Land rollers or packers are used in agriculture to pack seed, level land, push rocks down into the soil, break up clods, and for like purposes. What are commonly called land rollers comprise a fairly large diameter cylindrical steel roller rotatably mounted to a frame such that the rotational axis of the roller is oriented perpendicular to the operating travel direction. Land packing implements comprise a packing element with a generally cylindrical shape that may be defined by a coil as in FIG. 12 of U.S. Pat. No. 4,896,732 to Stark, or by a series of packer wheels mounted close together on a common shaft as in FIG. 1 of the Stark patent. For convenience both rollers and packers will be referred to hereafter as land rollers or land rolling implements.
These rollers have a relatively low draft since they are not engaging the soil but simply rolling over the soil. Thus it is possible for common agricultural tractors to tow a very wide implement. In order to follow the ground satisfactorily, and to allow the implement to be placed in a transport position, land rolling implement include a plurality of roller sections mounted on the frame of the implement, such as disclosed for example in the Stark patent, and in U.S. Pat. No. 6,119,788 to Bernier.
In order to provide complete coverage of the field it is desirable to have the roller sections overlap each other. In the implement illustrated in FIG. 3 of Stark, a center roller section is mounted rearward of right and left wing roller sections. The sections are oriented such that the outer ends of the following center frame overlap the inner ends of the wing sections. Similarly in the implement disclosed in FIG. 3 of Bernier the center section is mounted forward of the right and left wing roller sections. The sections are oriented such that the inner ends of the following wing sections overlap the outer ends of the center section. The wings fold into alignment with the travel direction for transport.
To provide a wider implement, Stark also discloses in FIGS. 12-17 a 5 section roller implement. In this outer wing sections are added to the outer ends of the inner wing sections of FIG. 3 at a location rearward of the inner wings and with their rotational axes aligned generally with that of the center section. The 5 section implement is shown in transport as well with the outer and inner wing sections generally aligned in the travel direction and located side by side. As the width and number of sections increases, placing the sections in a transport position becomes problematic.